Eaten by cannibals

There is a framed press cutting in the corridor of the Grey Gull Hotel at Ardrishaig with this headline which draws attention to the story of a local man,  the Rev James Chalmers,  who was born in the village in August 1841.   

The hotel stands opposite this memorial to him, and the Rev Chalmers clearly had a fascinating and very difficult life, witnessing to his faith on the other side of the globe until , at the age of almost sixty, he was killed on a remote shore  in New Guinea whilst landing to speak to a group of men and women who were probably terrified out of their wits by the arrival of a ghost like white human being in dark clothes on a huge boat. 

A very far cry from this tranquil scene, taken between campaign events on yet another lovely Spring day in Argyll.